Table of Contents
List of Maps and Illustrations xi
Author's Note xiii
Preface: The Pure Physics of Union xv
Part I When America's Story was Dominated By Wood, 1785-1805 1
A View across the Ridge 3
Drawing a Line in the Sand 6
Peering through the Trees 17
The Frontier and the Thesis 24
The Wood Was Become Grass 32
Encounters with the Sioux 41
First Lady of the Plains 49
High Plains Rafters 52
Passing the Gateway 55
Shoreline Passage 65
Part II When America's Story Went Beneath the Earth, 1809-1901 73
The Lasting Benefit of Harmony 75
The Science That Changed America 77
Drawing the Colors of Rocks 80
The Wellspring of Knowledge 83
The Tapestry of Underneath 88
Setting the Lures 91
Off to See the Elephant 96
The West, Revealed 104
The Singular First Adventure of Kapurats 113
The Men Who Gave Us Yellowstone 129
Diamonds, Sex, and Race 139
Part III When the American Story Traveled by Water, 1803-1900 163
Journeys to the Fall Line 165
The Streams beyond the Hills 171
The Pivot and the Feather 180
The First Big Dig 188
The Wedded Waters of New York 196
The Linkman Cometh 214
That OF Man River 222
Part IV When the American Story was Fanned by Fire, 1811-1956 239
May the Roads Rise Up 241
Rain, Steam, and Speed 248
The Annihilation of the In-Between 252
The Immortal Legacy of Crazy Judah 259
Colonel Eisenhower's Epiphanic Expedition 280
The Colossus of Roads 294
And Then We Looked Up 312
The Twelve-Week Crossing 316
Part V When the American Story was Told Through Metal, 1835-Tomorrow 329
To Go, but Not to Move 331
The Man Who Tamed the Lightning 335
The Signal Power of Human Speech 351
With Power for One and All 357
Lighting the Corn, Powering the Prairie 375
The Talk of the Nation 385
Making Money from Air 396
Television: The Irresistible Force 406
The All of Some Knowledge 417
Epilogue 429
Acknowledgments 435
Bibliography 441
Index 451